NC Man Charged With Illegally Dumping His Dead Father's Body

LEXINGTON, N.C. -- A North Carolina man is accused of illegally dumping his dead father's body six years ago in a wooded area so that he could continue to cash the older man's retirement checks.

Gregory Lane Johnston is charged with failing to report his 67-year-old father's death in 2007. A jailer said Thursday there was no attorney listed as representing the younger Johnston. Davidson County Sheriff David Grice says deputies were asked Wednesday to check on Walter Johnston, who shared his rural home with his son.

The 47-year-old Johnston told deputies his father had died years earlier and then took them to where he says he dumped the body. An autopsy of badly decomposed and previously unidentified remains discovered in the same area in 2008 found no signs of traumatic injury.